Sword Art Online: my version
by deadman fiction
Summary: this is my rewrite of sword art online with new characters, new story lines but the same basic concept. this is my attempt at making a story better than the original like some other writers have done. also, the game SAO will have been released worldwide and Kirito won't exist in this AU
1. the launch

**hey guys, this is the beginning of my Sword Art Online fan fiction and I hope you all enjoy and please leave a review**

November 5th 2022

Sword art online was due to be released to the world the next day, Zak and his two friends, Ted and Mark had decided to throw a party to celebrate the release of the new VRMMO. They were all sitting on the couch in Zaks house. Behind the three friends was a table filled with the leftovers of the food, from pizza boxes to Chinese food, they had gone all out when it came to the food. The friends sat there staring at the TV screen, they were playing some form of racing game. It was night time and the living room was well lit and the house was filled with the sound of laughter. Zaks parents had gone out for a meal living the three teens with the house to themselves.

"damn it," shouted Mark, frustrated as he watched his car spin of the track and explode in a plume of orange fire

The other two laughed

"don't laugh, if Ted hadn't knocked me of the track then this wouldn't have happened," said mark, still irritated

"what I can't believe is that you chose a racing game in the first place considering I always beat you," retorted Ted

"the only reason you always win is because you knock every one of the track," said mark his face now red with anger

Ted laughed loudly

Zak cut in shouting "Ted watch out your car's about to drive of a cliff!"

Ted watched eyes widened as his car dropped into the watery depths

"and it looks like I beat you Ted, how do you like that," Zak said with a triumphant grin on his face

"look what I got," said Ted pulling out three cans of beer from a red plastic bag that was next to his feet

"really Ted, you know we shouldn't," said Mark

"come on, don't be a stick in the mud and plus we can finally do the drunken fighter challenge on the new mortal combat," replied Ted

Mark angrily snatched one of the cans out of Teds hand and opened it, taking a big gulp from the can. Ted tossed a can towards Zak who caught it in his right hand. Zak opened the bottle and also took a large gulp. Ted soon followed, once everyone had become drunk, they opened up mortal combat and began to play they either shouted out in frustration or cried out in triumph, they went on like this for hours, after every few games they would drain another can of beer to make sure they didn't become sober. Eventually they all passed out with the TV saying the words "player 2 wins," over and over again. The floor was littered with beer cans.

Ted was a tall skinny boy with messy black hair and red eyes. Mark was bulky with tanned skin neat brown hair. Zak had dark blue hair and blue eyes he was reasonably good looking. But seeing them all passed out on the sofa was still not a pretty sight.

They woke up the next morning to a girl shouting at them, it was Zaks sister. She had dark blue hair tied into two pigtails and blue eyes just like Zak. Zak looked at the clock ignoring his sisters lecturing. It was 10:45 AM, oh crap he thought, they had to pick up their copies of SAO in 15 minutes. He stood up, dragged up his friend who were still drowsy and complaining that they had a splitting headache. He managed to get them to put their coats on while he did the same. They stumbled out the door and rushed over to the game store. They managed to get their just as it turned to 11:00 AM. When they reached the counter, a man handed them 3 copies of sword art online and smiled. The three of them thanked the man and rushed back to Zaks house. As soon as they entered the house, they ran up the4 stairs and into Zaks bedroom. The three of them inserted their disk containing SAO into their nerve gear. They then put on their nerve gear and turned it on,

they all shouted "link start" as they were plunged into the virtual world.

They found themselves in an old-fashioned town with shops and stalls. Ted now had red hair and grey eyes. Mark was now taller, more muscular and most importantly, bold. Zak had kept his original appearance deciding that he didn't want to change it. They all looked at each other adjusting to one another's new appearances. Once they had adjusted, they decided it would be best if they went to buy their weapons first so they could get to hunting as soon as possible.

"I want a meat Cleaver," said Ted

I don't think that will be very effective in a fight," Zak responded worried that one day they might fail due to Teds poor choice of weaponry.

"fine," Ted huffed, he was clearly disappointed "I'll just settle with a Japanese katana,"

"I want a spiked club," said Mark

Zak sighed but decided that a club wasn't as bad as a cleaver and didn't make any objections "I think I'll just stick with a normal medieval sword," Zak said,

the group all nodded and set off to acquire their weapon of choice and they agreed to meet back into the town centre once they had purchased their weapons. They met back up weapons in hand and decided that the first order of business was to form a party. After that was completed, they headed out to hunt. The first thing they found was a frenzy boar. The boar charged at Zak but Zak blocked the charge with his sword, a loud clang was heard as the metal blade it the tusks of the boar. While Zak was keeping the boar still, Mark brought his club down on the boars back causing significant damage and caused the boar to be stunned which allowed Zak to skewer the beast with his sword which drained the last of its HP. They watched as the creature burst becoming nothing more than a cloud of shards of light. They collected the loot dropped by the beast and continued moving forward. They stumbled into a swarm of large wasps. Ted charged at them, his katana glowing bright red as he shredded the horde of putrid bugs. Again, they collected the loot and continued moving forward. The group continued like this for two hours. Killing and looting monsters. Once they were done, they headed back to the town of beginnings where they sold the loot they had collected from the countless monsters that they had slain. They headed out again to do the same thing in order to get money but when they reached the gate Teds stomach began to rumble.

"I guess all this slaughter makes me hungry," Ted said, trying to hide his embarrassment

"so, shall we logout, get lunch and then log back in when we're done," Zak suggested "if you guys want, I can order pizza,"

"ok," the other two agreed, now that pizza had been mentioned, everyone was hungry

They all swiped their fingers to open the menu to logout but the logout button wasn't there

"hey, do any of you guys know where the logout button is," Zak said

"It should be in the menu," Mark replied "but I can't seem to find it,"

"yeah, me neither," said Ted who was also confused

The group stood around for a few minutes before they were enveloped by a blue light. When the blue light dissipated, they were in the centre of the town of beginnings along with every other SAO player. The group could hear the murmurs of confusion that filled the area. Then the sky turned red and began to bleed. The red liquid collected in a ball above the players heads before transforming into a massive figure in a red robe, his face hidden by the red hood. Then he began to speak in a low commanding voice,

Saying "Greetings players, my name is Akihiko Kayaba and I am the creator of the game sword art online. As you have probably noticed, there is no logout button, this isn't a bug, this is how sword art online was designed to be. The only way to leave the game is to beat the boss on floor 100 and clear the game. Also, if you die in this world then you will die IRL as well, attempted removal of the nerve gear will also result in your death. Sadly, 1,000 players have already died due to their families or friends attempting to remove the nerve gear, these deaths have been covered by the media all around the world so from now on the chance of someone removing the nerve gear of the 5 million players that are still alive is minimal. I wish you all the best of luck while trying to beat the game, I also left a little present in everyone's inventory,"

As he finishes talking, the massive figure begins to melt while emitting a purple gas until the figure is completely gone without a trace.

Everyone looked in their inventory and found a small mirror, then the whole place began to glow a neon blue as everyone reverted to their true appearances, everyone stood their shocked

Zak looked at his friends and said "hey, you two look like you do IRL," Zak watched his friends faces become covered into and expression of shock "yeah, Ted your hair and eyes are back to normal, and Mark, you have hair again but wait why haven't you become shorter,"

"oh," mark responded "I asked a friend to hack into my nerve gear and change it so the system thought I was taller,"

"that's random but anyway, we should probably get out of here," Zak said

The stadium then erupted into a panicked frenzy, people running and screaming. Zak and his friends began to push through the crowd in order to escape the city. They managed to escape the crowd and they ran to a nearby village. The group payed for a night in the inn and decided to sleep through the rest of the day, due to the fact that it will be wild out there due to the announcement

**Anyway guys that's it for the first chapter of my version of SAO I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review I would really appreciate it, the next chapter will be released on Saturday 6th of April so see you then.**


	2. the boss raid

**November 20th 2022**

It has been two weeks since we were trapped in this death game, all players who wish to fight the boss have been called to a meeting in Tolban as the boss has been found. Zak and Mark and found themselves a nice suit of armour for reasonable price. Ted had decided to get himself a black Japanese kimono saying that it allowed him to move more freely than a suit of armour. Everyone met in a small stadium, a man with blue hair, blue eyes and brown armour covering his chest. He also wore brown boots and white trousers. Once everyone was seated, the man at the front began to talk saying,

"Greetings, I am Diavel and I am here to say that the first floor boss has been located and we are asking you if you are willing to fight for the freedom of the 5 million players trapped in Aincrad,"

Everyone nodded, with everyone feeling a sense of determination.

"we will all be fighting in the form of parties, this parties will hopefully all consist of four to six players although this isn't a requirement, you will not be allowed to fight without at least one party member as the chance of you dying is too great,"

Everyone began to murmur and form their parties, Zak, Ted and Mark had already formed a party so they just sat there but then Zak noticed from the corner of his eye someone sat alone in a brown hooded cloak. Zak strode over to her while Ted and Mark looked on, surprised and curious as to what their friend was doing.

Zak talked to the girl saying "hay, I noticed you're not with anyone, does that mean you don't have a party?"

The lone player nodded, not speaking

"If you want you can join our party," Zak said pointing to his friends who instantly turned away trying to pretend that they weren't spying

The person nodded as Zak sent the person an invite. The cloaked person clicked accept and a new health bar appeared under Zaks. so their name was Asuna

"so Asuna welcome to our humble party, and with that we are now a group of four," Zak said happily

Asuna looked up asking "How did you know my name?"

"oh, didn't you know? Underneath your health bar you can see the health bar of your team mates and you can also see their name,"

Asuna looked to her health bar and sure enough she saw the health bar of Zak, Ted and Mark

"so, which one are you?" Asuna asked

"my name is Zak," Zak said

"and I'm Ted," said Ted who had just appeared

"and you must be Mark," Asuna said, pointing at Mark who was still seated

"yup, that me," said Mark who was scratching his neck while smiling

"so, do you want to get some training in before tomorrow then," says Zak while Asuna stands up

Then suddenly a boy with spiky orange hair jumps out of the crowd and lands next to Diavel

"my name is Kibaou and I'm here representing all the players who have died in SAO," Kibaou shouts "and there are some people in this audience who need to apologise to them,"

Everyone looked confused but then Kibaou spoke again saying

"the ex-beta testers,"

Everyone was shocked and some people in the audience were getting nervous

"I suggest they come down here, apologise and then give us all their loot and money," Kibaou shouted

Then another person stepped into the audience, he looked a lot like Marks avatar except he was taller and had a goatee

"hey, so my name is Agil and let me get this straight, you want all the beta testers to give up their stuff because you think they have an unfair advantage," Agil said

"yeah, that about covers it," kibaou said

"do you have one of these," Agil said, holding up a book with a brown leather cover

"yeah, what about it?" Kibaou said

"do you know who was handing these out, the ex-beta testers," Agil said proudly, everyone sat there shocked, even Kibaou didn't know what to say

"so, are we done then," Agil said directly to Kibaou

Kibaou huffed and sat back down and then Agil soon followed

Then Diavel continued his speech saying "All right. Then, can we resume? The latest edition of that guide book was just issued, and it contains information on the boss. According to it, the boss's name is illfang the Kobold Lord. He is guarded by assistants known as Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He is armed with an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one enters the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. His attack pattern changes, as well. Wow Amazing. This concludes the briefing. Lastly, items will be automatically distributed. EXP goes to the party that defeats the monster. And whoever receives an item keeps it. Any objections? Okay, we leave tomorrow, at ten in the morning. See you then!"

Once Diavel had finished talking people began to leave the small stadium. The group left to visit the forest to train the group told Asuna to go first so they could get a sense of how powerful she was. Asuna had decided to go for a frenzy boar. She took out her rapier and dashed towards. She kicked the boar into the air and prepared to stab the beasts' belly, her bled began to glow and neon green and then she stabbed the boar with her rapier, the boar's corpse still on the blade like a skewer. Eventually the boar's body burst into shards of light which after a few seconds faded away. The other three members of the group were shocked by Asuna's prowess with her weapon.

Asuna turned to them and smiled cheerily, saying "ok then, now it's your turn," she the walked back to join the group.

The group continued to hunt, each taking turns in taking out the various monsters. After two hours the clock struck twelve so the group headed back to the village. They went into one of the shops and Zak bought a loaf of bread, butter and some cheese. The group headed to bench in the centre of the village and Zak used his sword to make sandwiches, everyone thought that they were paying too much for food but nobody complained as the cheaper alternative tasted awful and was tough to eat. By the end of the hunting session everyone had reached level 10. After that everyone decided to do quests until 8 PM in order to get some stuff they managed to score some good stuff and a decent amount of food and money. The group decided that they should probably save up money for a house and try not to spend too much. When 8 PM arrived, everyone rented a room at the Inn and slept there till morning. The group woke up at 9 AM and decided to buy Asuna some armour although Asuna decided she didn't want a full suit because it would limit her mobility. The group also stocked up on potions and stuff like that. They reached the small stadium in Tolbana at 10 AM just as planned, once everyone was there the raid party began the long trek through the forest to reach the floor boss. While the raid party walked, the group as for began to chat

"so, are you guys excited to get to kill the boss," ted said enthusiastically

"I guess, but please don't run off ahead of everyone to try to face the boss on your own because you need to remember that we are a party," Zak explained, all though Zak guessed that Ted wasn't paying attention

"guys, it's fine, all we need to do is kill the boss," Mark said confidently

"Asuna, why are you wearing that cloak again?" Zak asked

"oh, it's to hide my face," Asuna replied "i may be willing to show you guys but not everybody,"

"so, your still really shy then?" Ted said, he sounded disappointed

After half an hour of walking through the forest and another half hour getting through the dungeon the raid parties finally found the door to the boss. When they entered the room it was dark, really dark but then the room suddenly ignited with colour, the room was now filled with rainbow light, opposite the players was a large throne and sat on that throne was illfang the kobold lord. He looked like a really fat oversized rat with red skin instead of fur. He was holding a large axe in one hand and a buckler in the other, he was surrounded by his minions which appeared to be look like knights with red tails. The boss stood up and charged towards the group of players but Mark ran forward and blocked the axe strike with his club which he had recently upgraded to be made of stone with iron spikes instead of just wood with metal spikes. A large clang echoed through the large room as the two weapons collided. The boss fell back but then Asuna charged forward the blade of her rapier glowing a neon green as she stabbed the beast in the stomach, the beast fell back further but then came charging back readying his axe to strike down Asuna. Mark quickly jumped forward, pushed Asuna out of the way and blocked the attack with his spiked club, then just as we planned, I picked up Ted and hurled him at the boss while it was still in attempting to attack Mark. Ted sliced straight down leaving a wide gash going down the beast large stomach. Ted smiled as he looked at his handy work.

"now it's your turn to take a swing at him," Ted said to Zak and Asuna

They nodded then charged at the beast. Suddenly, the boss struck the ground with his axe launching a wave of debris and dust that knocked me and Asuna to the ground and Asuna's cape torn away to reveal her wearing her silver armour chest plate and boots as well as a red top and red skirt. I look to see Ted, his katana glowing a crimson red as he throws it like a javelin at the boss, the blade lodges itself in the beast's eye. The boss tosses away his axe. Then suddenly, Diavel comes running in, his blade glowing yellow. The boss grabs it's second weapon but instead of the curved Talwar everyone was expecting, it drew a long straight blade called a Nodachi. The beast quickly jumped and when he landed, he knocked Diavel into the air. The boss then struck Diavel with his blade creating a large diagonal gash across his body. Diavel fell to the ground.

"Asuna, go help Diavel," shouted Zak "I'll take care of the boss!"

Asuna rushed over to the dying Diavel and took out a healing potion but just as she was about to administer the lifesaving item, Diavel stopped her and said saying "I was selfish, I tried to get the last attack bonus but please, you have to defeat the boss and save everyone here," these were Diavel's dying words before his body became mere shards of light and after a few seconds those two would fade away.

Meanwhile, Zak was bubbling with rage and his blade was emanating a neon blue light. He charged towards the beast and before it had time to react, he slashed the boss' stomach knocking him back slightly and before the boss could regain its balance, Zak did the same thing again. He would keep on doing this over and over and over again, each time he would get faster and faster and each time his rage became more intense until eventually the boss' HP dropped to zero and its body exploding into a cloud of light shards that eventually faded away until nothing remained of the boss. The room was filled with cheers until someone shouted

"why did you do it, why did you let Diavel die,"

The group turned to the person who had spoken and sure enough, it was Kibaou

"he refused to take the healing potion I offered," Asuna said

"I don't mean that," Kibaou said "I mean why didn't your group warn us about the weapon it switched to," Kibaou proclaimed "I could tell from the look in your eyes that you knew something was off," Kibaou said while pointing at Zak

Zak was surprised by this accusation because even if he did know, there wasn't enough time to warn him.

"let me guess, your one of the ex-beta testers," Kibaou said

"no," Ted said with a smug tone "I'm the one in the group who was the ex-beta tester, I just told these two everything once the beta ended due to the fact that I knew them IRL but I never told them in game,"

"so why didn't you share all your information at the meeting if you were a beta-tester?"

"because," Ted said "Diavel was a Beta tester as well, we were in a party together,"

Everyone was shocked at this revelation.

Then Zak started talking "oh and Kibaou, since you're probably going to ask for some sort of compensation, I might as well give you the bonus item I got for landing the finishing hit," once he had finished talking Zak tossed Kibaou the coat of midnight and the group began to walk away

The group walked up the stairs and entered the second floor of Aincrad, leaving the first floor raid party speechless.

"hey guys, I've had an idea," said Mark "we should create a guild,"

"hey, maybe your right," Zak said "we should call ourselves the golden dawn,"

"yeah," the rest of the group of the group shouted with enthusiasm

**Hey guys hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of my sword art online fan fiction and yes, for all of you that noticed, the name of the guild is a reference to black clover. Anyway the next chapter will be released on Saturday 13th April so see you guys then**


	3. hive fight

**7th of December 2022**

On the third floor of Aincrad, a fledgling guild, now known as the Knights of the Blood Oath, claimed to have found a dungeon which could possibly give out great loot. The guild then announced for all willing players to join its ranks to be able to defeat the dungeon and its boss, promising that all guild members who fight in the dungeon will not have to fight the floor boss which will take place in two weeks. The guild known as the Golden Dawn is willing to join in the dungeon raid, and the group to meet with leader of the Knights of the Blood oath, Commander Heathcliff, to negotiate terms of alliance and discuss the battle plan for the raid.

As the four members of the Golden Dawn walked into the room in an inn that they had decided would be where the meeting would take place, they noticed Heathcliff was wearing a full red suit of armor with a white cape and a red and white shield in the shape of a holy cross. He had long steel-grey hair and brown eyes with a long strand of hair going down his forehead.

"Greetings, I presume you are the members of the Golden Dawn." Heathcliff stated calmly.

"Nice to meet you too." Zak replied.

"I haven't really had the chance to thank you. While we haven't formally met, you all have provided massive help in clearing all of the floor bosses and I hope you will aid us in the current floor boss fight as well."

"Yeah, that's assuming we live through the week." Mark muttered.

The four guild members stood in front of Heathcliff, who stood up from the bed fully face them. "I'm incredibly grateful for your could join us on our raid tomorrow." he spoke. "Though I must ask, what are the names of my new allies?"

They all sat there quietly for a moment but then Zak spoke first "My name is Aurus," he said.

The other three looked at him in surprise, but then nodded.

"Mortio," Ted added.

"Mine is Leo," Mark followed

As eyes fell on Asuna, she shrunk back slightly. "Just, Asuna," she replied, a confused look appearing on her face.

"Okay then, now with all the pleasantries out of the way we can get started." Heathcliff said. "Perhaps we should begin with your guild membership-"

"Wait one minute," Ted stepped forward as he talked. "What if we don't want to join your guild?"

"Oh?" Heathcliff asked.

Mark and Zak looked at each other nervously. "We have our own guild, and we have a pretty good thing going. Your guild isn't that much bigger than ours right now! Why should we start taking orders from you?"

"Why it's the most beneficial for you." Heathcliff explained. "The more people there are in a guild, the more protection you have."

"Prove it then," Ted challenged. "Duel me, if you present enough of a challenge then I'll consider joining, but otherwise, no way!" He glared at Heathcliff with a determined, almost deranged stare.

The commander stayed calm. "If a duel is what you wish for, then I have no problem giving you one." Heathcliff said. "If you win, I'll accept your terms."

"Follow me," Ted commanded. He spun around, leaving the room with Heathcliff. The rest of the Golden Dawn guild following suit.

"Was that part of the plan?" Mark asked.

"Um, kind of? The duel was definitely not." Zak replied, massaging the bridge of his nose.

The group exited the inn. Heathcliff and Ted faced each other in the middle of the path while the other three members of the Golden Dawn stood in front of the door to the inn. Before the rest of the group knew what was happening, the duel began. Ted charged at Heathcliff his sword glowing a crimson red. Heathcliff quickly blocked Mortio's attack with a parry, followed with him charging forward, knocking Ted back with his shield. The aggressor fell to the ground but quickly gets back up and licks his lips.

"Have you had enough?" Heathcliff asked.

"Not even close." Ted growled. He charged again but this time, when he is mere inches away from Heathcliff, instead of striking he jumped up, landing behind Heathcliff. He then struck, leaving a deep gash in Heathcliff's back taking a large chunk out of his health bar. Heathcliff quickly turned around, blocking the second attack with his shield. He then takes out his sword and charges at Ted. He blocked Heathcliff's blade with his own but was once again hit in the face with Heathcliff's shield, knocking him on his back. Both men were breathing heavily and were sweating. Ted charged a third time but this time is blocked by Zak. This intervention canceled the duel.

"What did you do that for?" Ted moans "I just about had him!"

"Don't kid yourself." Zak said sternly "That was a stale mate and you know it, and when it was over you would have become sulky and told him he wasn't good enough out of spite. That's not how we roll." he continued. Ted lived up to the prediction, storming back inside the inn. Zak sighed, turning to face the commander. "Anyway, commander, we will be joining you in your raid but we will not join your guild. Mortio is right, end of discussion."

"But," Heathcliff retorted. "Won't we need to discuss strategy? Tactics? Also coordination of our attacks? This is essential if we're to even stand a chance."

"Nope," Aurus replied firmly. "All we have to do is show up and kill the boss while your guild kills the minions. You yourself might want to help fight the boss, but that's up to you."

Heathcliff was shocked at the arrogance of these players. He sighed. "You're digging your own graves." he muttered solemnly.

"Asuna, go get Mortio, we're going," Zak said in a stern commanding voice that contrasted greatly with his typical laid-back attitude.

While they were walking the streets Asuna asked "Why did you change your names?"

"Because," Zak sighed. "The names we had been using up until now were our real ones, and we decided that giving out our real names wasn't the best idea, you should start calling us by those names too."

"Oh," Asuna said "Is that right?"

"Have you thought about changing your name too?"

Asuna shrugged. "Why would I?"

* * *

The next day the group arrived at the dungeon early wanting to get a head start on Heathcliff. They walked through the small stone corridors that were filled with spiders' webs. Every so often they would run into a large spider which Leo would proceed to crush under his club. It wasn't long until they entered the boss room. It was a large, square room, filled with spiders' webs. In the center of the room was the boss a half spider half human. Its name was the Spider Queen Sycorax. She had the abdomen and legs of a gigantic spider but had the upper body of an over-sized human she was wearing black gloves with matching black lipstick. Her eyes were a venomous green that glowed intently. Surrounding her were her minions, large black spiders with red marks on their abdomen. They were large, but lacked the gargantuan nature of their queen.

"Asuna and Leo, get the minions! Mortio and I will take out the queen!" Aurus shouted.

But just as they were about to split up, a barrage of spider webs swirled around them, tying the group up into a cocoon. The group fell to the ground. The four struggled to escape the cocoon of white web but their attempts were in. As the minions closed in, they heard a loud thud as the knights of the blood oath rushed in with Heathcliff leading them in. Heathcliff rushed over to them and cut them free with his sword. The group stood up and watched the members of the Knights of the Blood Oath let out a mighty cry as they battled with the spiders.

"So, you thought you could beat the boss and its minions all on your own did you," Heathcliff stated, a hint of smugness in his voice as he helped Asuna to her feet.

"The thought did cross our minds." Mortio replied with a grin.

"Perhaps, a new strategy is in order." Heathcliff ordered. "Shall we have a go at the boss then since the minions are dealt with?" he asked.

"Don't mind if we do," Mortio replied.

The group of five charge forwards with Mortio and Aurus charging in front of everyone else. Mortio sliced of all of the spider queens' right legs while Aurus severed all her left legs. The boss tumbled to the floor. Asuna and Heathcliff swiftly and repeatedly stabbed the exposed stomach of the beast while Leo jumped and smashed the beast's skull with his club. Heathcliff quickly ran away to avoid the falling body. The corpse collapsed on its side, kicking up dust and debris.

"Ha! Take that!" Mortio exclaimed.

The group of five stared at the corpse of the boss but then looked to its life total. At the start it had 2 heath bars but now it had one. "It's not dead!" Aurus yelled, raising his weapon.

Suddenly, the body of the Sycorax burst into flames although these flames were a fluorescent green instead of the glowing orange that we normally expect. Then the boss's limbs began to grow back and after a few seconds the boss stood up again. Then it started hurling balls of green fire at us that exploded on impact. The respective guild members dodged or defended against the explosive blasts. Heathcliff blocked a projectile with his shield, but the rest of the group had to dodge the barrage of fireballs, retreating slightly.

"We can't get close!" Asuna yelled. "What do we do?"

A loud noise echoed behind them. They turned to see a cloaked figure rush through the door and released volley after volley of arrows each of the arrows glowing a neon orange as it flew through the air. The glow of the arrows died away as soon as they had found its target with perfect accuracy. Within a few minutes the flames that engulfed the boss had died away and its body was covered in arrows. Its HP had finally hit zero, and it shattered into glass shards, floating into the air.

"I'll take it!" Leo cried out gratefully.

As the fighters cheered But when the Aurus turned around to thank the mysterious figure, they were gone. The webs that had once plagued the walls dissipated, and gold began pouring from the holes etched into the cave. Once the boss was defeated, the members of the Knights of the Blood Oath, led by their commander, began to leave the cleared dungeon with experience, treasure, and renewed determination. The Golden Dawn walked out of that room with similar rewards, but a single question lingered with them in their minds. Who was that player?

**thank you guys for reading the latest chapter of my sword art online fan fiction and i hope that you enjoyed it. the next chapter will be released on the 20th of April so see you guys then.**


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